Top five football stars missing at FIFA Club World Cup 2025

Besides Ronaldo, which other stars will be missing from the competition? Let’s take a look.

FIFA Club World Cup 2025 has already commenced, and top clubs from across the globe are set to play each other in order to win the revamped competition this year. The competition will occur once every four years, and the winner will get to wear the badge in front of their jersey for the next four years.

Many high-profile players will be hoping to leave a significant mark at the competition, and we already have the likes of Lionel Messi, Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr.

However, there are a few sensations who couldn’t participate in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 due to their teams’ failure to qualify to secure a place in the event, and with this, let’s take a look at the top football stars who aren’t present in the championship.

5. Bukayo Saka

Semi-finalists in the Champions League. Another side that was left out of the tournament were Arsenal, who went trophyless during the 2024-25 season. With the exception of the FA Community Shield, England international Bukayo Saka’s sole club trophy is an FA Cup victory with Arsenal in 2020.

Saka could use more medals for a player of his calibre who has played consistently at the highest level for six seasons. As they attempt to unseat Liverpool and Manchester City, who have monopolised the English game in recent seasons, Arsenal will also be frustrated to lose out on the prize money.

4. Lamine Yamal

Barcelona’s 17-year-old sensation Lamine Yamal has provided more excitement than any other player in world football this season. The Spanish winger is among the contenders to win the Ballon d’Or because of his incredible play this season.

Yamal is currently one of the biggest draws in world football because of his exciting dribbling and love of the extraordinary. He is frequently likened to the legendary Lionel Messi of Barcelona, but he may have lost his only opportunity to play against the Argentine due to the Spanish champions’ absence in the tournament.

3. Mohamed Salah

Liverpool won the 2024-25 English Premier League title, but due to the complicated qualifying process, they will not be participating in the Club World Cup 2025 like Spain’s Barcelona and Italy’s Napoli. Salah, an Egyptian winger who shattered the Premier League goal involvement record with 29 goals and 18 assists, will therefore not play.

Salah might not be too upset about taking the summer off after a demanding season in which he waned in the closing months.

2. Neymar

After battling injuries at Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, Brazilian superstar Neymar returned to Santos in January 2025 in an attempt to recover healthy and productive for the World Cup the following summer.

Even though he is getting older, the 33-year-old forward is still one of the most well-known players in the world. Thus, his absence hurts the competition’s status as Neymar’s appearance would have been beneficial because the organisers are still having trouble selling tickets for matches.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo

Due to the large number of elite players and clubs participating, there has been a great deal of excitement throughout the world for the competition. But they won’t include Al Nassr and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Four clubs are permitted to represent Asian soccer under the FIFA-established qualification procedure for this inaugural extended edition of the Club World Cup. The AFC Champions League Elite champions from the previous three continental tournaments, as well as the top-ranked Asian team outside of those title winners, were to be among the qualified teams.

Cristiano Ronaldo‘s Al Nassr were unable to participate in this year’s competition since they failed to meet any of these requirements.

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